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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Blue World Notes: Full Immersion Flying in Blue Mars

In Blue Mars there is a place called Waterfall where you can fly, and if you're only accustomed to avatar flight as it's depicted in Second Life, it may be something you'll want to try. They're both powerful experiences, but decidedly different: In this Blue Mars version, at least, you don't see your avatar (as with SL), but instead, the camera locks you into a first-person perspective. But the key difference is the power of Blue Mars immersion, not just in the graphics, but the sound propagation -- jungle calls coming from the trees when you skim over them, and the thunder of the waterfall, when you fly up close. Visually the mountains and ocean remind me of flying with my uncle in his Cessna over the carved emerald cliffs of the North Shore of Oahu (there's that Hawaii connection again.)

Though one particular element of Blue Mars' Waterfall may remind you of something else. You know:

2 comments:

  1. "In this Blue Mars version, at least, you don't see your avatar (as with SL), but instead, the camera locks you into a first-person perspective."

    Hem hem.

    Allow me to introduce the "mouselook" function in SL... :) Great fun for flying! And, you know, controllable by the user...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I just meant that with this Blue Mars area the first-person camera lock is automatic, so you can't see your avatar while flying.

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